The present disclosure relates to continuous board manufacturing processes and, more particularly, to an apparatus, system and method for the distribution of a slurry in connection with the manufacture of a cementitious article.
In many types of cementitious articles, set gypsum (calcium sulfate dihydrate) is often a major constituent. For example, set gypsum is a major component of end products created by use of traditional plasters (e.g., plaster-surfaced internal building walls), and also in faced gypsum board employed in typical drywall construction of interior walls and ceilings of buildings. In addition, set gypsum is the major component of gypsum/cellulose fiber composite boards and products, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,677. Set gypsum is also included in products that fill and smooth the joints between edges of gypsum board (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,297,601). Also, many specialty materials, such as materials useful for modeling and mold-making that are precisely machined, produce products that contain major amounts of set gypsum. Typically, such gypsum-containing cementitious products are made by preparing a mixture of calcined gypsum (calcium sulfate alpha or beta hemihydrate and/or calcium sulfate anhydrite), water, and other components, as appropriate to form a cementitious slurry. In the manufacture of cementitious articles, the cementitious slurry and desired additives are often blended in a continuous mixer, as for example described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,146.
For example, in a typical gypsum panel manufacturing process, gypsum board is produced by uniformly dispersing calcined gypsum (commonly referred to as “stucco”) in water to form an aqueous calcined gypsum slurry. The aqueous calcined gypsum slurry is typically produced in a continuous manner by inserting stucco and water and other additives into a mixer which contains means for agitating the contents to form a uniform gypsum slurry. The slurry is continuously directed toward and through a discharge outlet of the mixer and into a discharge conduit connected to the discharge outlet of the mixer. An aqueous foam can be combined with the aqueous calcined gypsum slurry in the mixer and/or in the discharge conduit. The stream of slurry passes through the discharge conduit from which it is continuously deposited onto a moving web of cover sheet material supported by a forming table.
The slurry is allowed to spread over the advancing web. A second web of cover sheet material is applied to cover the slurry and form a sandwich structure of a continuous wallboard preform, which is subjected to forming, such as at a conventional forming station, to obtain a desired thickness.
The calcined gypsum reacts with the water in the wallboard preform and sets as a conveyor moves the wallboard preform down a manufacturing line. The wallboard preform is cut into segments at a point along the line where the preform has set sufficiently. The segments are flipped over, dried (e.g., in a kiln) to drive off excess water, and processed to provide the final wallboard product of desired dimensions.
Prior devices and methods for addressing some of the operational problems associated with the production of gypsum wallboard are disclosed in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,683,635; 5,643,510; 6,494,609; 6,874,930; 7,007,914; and 7,296,919, which are incorporated by reference.
The weight proportion of water relative to stucco that is combined to form a given amount of finished product is often referred to in the art as the “water-stucco ratio” (WSR). A reduction in the WSR without a formulation change will correspondingly increase the slurry viscosity, thereby reducing the ability of the slurry to spread on the forming table. Reducing water usage (i.e., lowering the WSR) in the gypsum board manufacturing process can yield many advantages, including the opportunity to reduce the energy demand in the process. However, conveying increasingly viscous gypsum slurries through a discharge conduit mounted to the mixer and spreading such slurries uniformly on the forming table remain a great challenge.
It will be appreciated that this background description has been created by the inventors to aid the reader and is not to be taken as an indication that any of the indicated problems were themselves appreciated in the art. While the described principles can, in some aspects and embodiments, alleviate the problems inherent in other systems, it will be appreciated that the scope of the protected innovation is defined by the attached claims and not by the ability of any disclosed feature to solve any specific problem noted herein.